A South Coast woman who violently killed her elderly neighbours last year should be found not guilty due to mental illness, the NSW Supreme Court, sitting in Wollongong, heard yesterday.Tracey Lee Pratt, 43, used an electronic massage appliance and her own fists to fatally bash Margaret and Kenneth Keyte on August 9 or 10 last year, Crown Prosecutor Paul Cattini told the court.
LATEST: Pratt found not guilty on the grounds of mental illnessThe couple, aged 71 and 86, were found dead on the lounge room floor of their home in Beach Rd, Batehaven.Mr Cattini said there was no sign of forced entry and the couple were dressed in their pyjamas.Biscuits found in the sink indicated the trio had had some form of agreeable conversation before the violent assault.Police believed when the appliance broke, Pratt used a chair to continue the attack and had used "considerable violence".Pratt was charged with the couple's murder after police matched fingerprints at the scene with prints taken when Pratt was arrested for an unrelated matter almost two weeks later.Defence lawyer Andrew Haesler, SC, said his client admitted killing the couple but she could not be legally responsible because she had been suffering schizophrenia at the time.Two psychiatrists, one each for the Crown and defence, are expected to give evidence today that Pratt was fit to stand trial but agree the defence of mental illness was available to her.Mr Cattini told the court during 2006, Pratt had spent a month in a psychiatric hospital but had not been taking her medication at the time of the murders and suffered delusions and auditory hallucinations.Pratt had a habit of being "loud and disruptive at all hours" and had disputes with neighbours for reasons that could only be explained by delusional thoughts, he said.In referring Justice Robert Allan Hulme to a previous Supreme Court verdict, Mr Haesler asked, "What is the point in punishing people if they are beyond the law because of mental illness?"However, Mr Haesler said a not guilty verdict did not mean Pratt would "walk from the court a free person".He asked Justice Hulme to order Pratt, if found not guilty, be referred to the Mental Health Review Tribunal, which would determine when she was fit to be released.Pratt could be subject to supervision for the rest of her life, Mr Haesler said.
